Critical voices within the Dutch Islamic community are too seldom heard. At least, that’s the view of the group of young Muslims behind the website nieuwemoskee.nl - 'new mosque'.

“Islam expects Muslims to have their own points of view and to make their own choices,” says theology student Arnold Yasin Mol, “not blindly to accept everything passed down from past generations. Early Muslims were critical too.”

Mr Mol, who converted to Islam seven years ago, heads the Deen Research Centre, a think tank on modern Islamic thought, and sits on the board of the Dutch Muslim Party. He’s long held the view that not enough was being heard from critical voices within the Muslim community in the Netherlands. Together with a small group of like-minded people, he has set up the Dutch-language nieuwemoskee.nl website.

Treachery
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Muslims have been viewed with suspicion and, within their community, self-criticism has tended to be seen as treachery. Mr Mol thinks this attitude is mistaken:

“If something is wrong with certain Muslim customs, we think it should be a matter for open discussion. The separation of men and women in mosques for instance is highly controversial within Islam. Muslims should be willing to take far stronger positions on such issues.”

Stimulate debate
The website is also intended to stimulate the public debate on Islam’s position in Dutch society. Mr Mol thinks this has become deadlocked, partly because Muslims have been slow to join in the discussion. This was one of the reasons to call the website ‘new mosque’. “At the dawn of Islam, the mosque was the place for challenging discussion, not just among Muslims themselves, but also with followers of other religions.”

Articles on celebrated reformers such as Syria’s Mohammed Shahrur and Egypt’s late Nasr Abu Zayd have a prominent place on the website. Mr Mol confirms that the site editors are very interested in these modernistic thinkers. However, he doesn’t want the site to be identified with their ideas.

Salafists
“Our intention is broader. We want to provide a platform for critical voices from all schools of thought, whether they be reformist, conservative or fundamentalist. Fundamentalist Salafists can also be very self-critical.”

The Dutch government has long complained that the internet is dominated by Salafists, and that young Dutch Muslims looking for information about Islam on the internet can only find fundamentalist websites. The government hopes that by supporting moderate websites like islamwijzer.nl (Islam guide) it can help break this monopoly.

Independent
Arnold Yasin Mol stresses that nieuwemoskee.nl doesn’t receive any government funding. “It’s entirely our own initiative. We do understand what the Dutch government is doing, but we want to remain fully independent.”

Mr Mol says the new website meets a demand among young Dutch Muslims.

“At home they have a traditional upbringing and at school they’re exposed to the Dutch approach to the world. Their attempts to reconcile these two worlds starts them thinking. In fact this automatically makes them critical. All we’re doing is creating a space for a voice that already exists.”